...This Game svcks.


Let me elaborate before you think my sophomoric statement is indicative of my speech. Also, let me preface this "review" by saying I understand we PC gamers are a minority - and I understand the console market as a whole seems to think we (PC Gamers) are a dying breed and will be replaced by the latest and greatest consoles.

Maybe. That's not my fight. I'm a biologist.

That said, I understand the market in consoles and 16-year-olds who wholly control mommy's budget are a persuasive market to involve oneself in. I understand that involvement in this market can rapidly increase revenue and secure a blockbuster status on a very predictable income path akin to that of a summer release film. [Starts high, opening weekend is peak - followed by a gradual fall off into oblivion].

That Said,

CryTek's beautiful history of 2 games all contain certain features alike to each other, and no I don't mean lush jungle environs. High Graphical Standards, Vague Mission Objectives (Allowing some creativity in their execution) and pinpoint controls. It is this writer's opinion that Crysis II has removed every single one of these previously established benchmarks and thus effectively disenfranchised those of us who are (were?) dedicated CryTek proponents.

Let me delve a bit into each one of these axioms to better explain how I feel Crytek has done us, PC Gaming and themselves a disservice.

I. High Graphical Standards.
I believe it was Yahtzee famous for his ZEROpunctuation review-rants on the eMagazine "The Escapist" who said Crysis was (paraphrasing) 'great if you had a PC from Mars to play it'. Sure, Crysis on Full-out balls-to-the-wall graphics was indeed requisite of a very powerful PC in 2008. Perhaps not so much anymore with 6GB of DDR-3 RAM and quad-core CPUs becoming more-and-more common, not to mention Pixel Shader 3 support.

However, this was completely circumvented by the scalability of the graphics in Crysis. It might not look as pretty, but it was better than The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion at even the most rudimentary of graphical loadouts as each individual option anti-aliasing, shadows and anisotropic filtering could each be custom tailored. In an effort to streamline graphical process and allow a more diverse (read: less educated/technically proficient) audience to more fully grasp the tiers of graphical greatness these options have been completely removed in Crysis II - no longer can I adjust shadows if I know that speeds FPS - or disable 16xQ AA to better render. No, I simply have "Good, Better, Best, EXTREME!!!one" loadouts that preconfigure God-knows what, because it doesn't tell me.

Show any Xbox-gamer Crysis 2 and they are sure to poo their pants, I am sure on the Xbox this is one of the better-looking Xbox titles that will come out this year. That said, even then Crysis 2 does not maintain the textural depth, smooth lines and detail that was so endemic to Crysis on the PC. It has more Michael Bay-esque flashes and 'Gee Whiz Mister' bells and whistles (respectively) to allow a user to believe this is an updated graphics engine, when in truth 1:1 comparison shows a much reduced pixel display compared to Crysis 1 even on the PC. This compounded with the inability to tweak specific visual details i.e. Shadows is nigh-game breaking, but I am not done yet.

II. Vague Mission Objectives

I have never played any Call of Duty save the very first one with my Mousin-Nagant in a dilapidated Russian hotel in 1944. However, plugged into the game world as I apparently am (sometimes more than Biology) I am not so uneducated as to not be aware of the menagerie of shall we say 'mainstream' shooters out there. Crysis 2 is, or at least trying very hard, to be one. A lot of sizzle, pop, fizz and very little differentiation, emphasis on player creativity and most of all leniency to arrive at one's own methodology of mission completion absolutely break Crysis 2 for me for in FarCry and Crysis the very thing I loved the absolute most was the free-form feel it gave. Were these games Sandboxes, say, like FallOut or The Elder Scrolls? Surely not. They were linear mission-based experiences that allowed an openness of world to catalyze an illusion for the player of free-roaming. Does XTC really make everyone love you? Of course not. But it feels like it.* If a game can do something without doing something, I really don't care all that much, for what I pay (in this case) $US 59.99 is the experience I have, and in both FarCry and Crysis I felt very free and able to accomplish these mission objectives however I saw fit. I was not corridor shooting and the ages of Doom (I or III they're the same to me) were long-gone.

Crysis 2, doesn't do this. It feels very linear, very tubular and very hunched. And no, this does not lend to the recreation of New York feeling any more accurate it lends to feeling like a linear shooter from 1998. To me, Crytek stepping away from more open-ended gameplay IS gamebreaking.

And Finally,

III. I creep over the ledge, Maximum Cloak activated, I am on my belly, sighting down the sights of my DSG-1 Sniper rifle with sniper scope complete with arbitrary chartreuse LEDs that run down the side of the sight... I zero in my target, strafe to the left, compensate for breath and POP! I remove the soldier's hat along with the superior portion of his frontal lobe. I was prone. I activated cloak by double-pressing CTRL, could leap by "double tapping" Spacebar. Because I can do that on a PC. Because I have full control of my keyboard all 105 keys of QWERTY goodness. I can set whatever to whichever. I can open up a plethora of tactical options, leaning, proning, ducking, toggle-ducking...

Xbox controllers have a lot of buttons.

Xbox controllers do not have 105 buttons.

The sacrifice of functions like 'prone' so ingrained into my skull as "what snipers should be doing" is preposterous. I find myself going for Crysis (1) keys that do not respond in Crysis 2 then find myself shouting shorter, more interjection-like adjectives describing the control layouts. No prone. Seriously? Das ist verrueckt, meine Freunde und Mitarbeiter von Crytek., GmbH.

So even if we say that lack of pinpoint controls is only 50% game breaking and we postulate that graphics not being up to par to older games is only 50% gamebreaking, this game is still 200% broken. This is a statistical anomaly and I would not want to calculate this P-Value in any lab.

I understand the argument of pirates emphasizing companies to remove themselves from the PC market, in this day in age, they'll happen - blame technology blame low moral standards blame America I don't care I am not a politician nor am I a game pirate - moves like excessive DRM and diversifying into poly-platforming to round out perceived losses due to video game piracy or to underscore a bottom line on a profits sheet do, however, make me feel like one. And when customers become your enemy - there is something wrong with the world and that's scientific fact. I also find it hard to believe that a majority of pirates would have bought your game if torrents didn't exist. They're pirating it because the threat of legal action is less, to them, then the threat of a 60.00 price-tag, which seems to be ever-climbing. So, in that case it isn't "lost income" anyway.

I understand such humanitarian idealistic arguments are impossible to support and meaningless in board rooms sans circle-graphs but I feel the obligation on behalf of the gaming community to bring them up anyway. And I, for a fact, have not bought games I really REALLY wanted due to over-stepped DRM software present by your French competitors, UbiSoft.

I don't care if you port Crysis 2 or Crysis 12 to PC and XBox. Mass Effect I and II were both released on both consoles and I think, rather well. But do not develop one version. BioWare had two versions of each made, the former was developed third party who's only job it was; to optimize Mass Effect for a computer layout - graphically, control styles and UI. Producing a single product and not optimizing it beyond necessities to a PC platform is an insult to your customers and a poor expenditure of funds - as bad press moves faster than good.

The change-over from PC to Console is very evident in Crysis 2 and to an old PC hat like me, I am deeply concerned by this direction and the shortcuts taken by the development team. I express to you my disappointment in the hope that it will catalyze change, but then again...


I'm just a biologist.

Thank You For Your (Copious) Time (It Took To Read This)

TL;DR:

The Emphasis Crysis 2 Puts on Console Optimization is Evident in the PC Version is Evident and Manages to Brutally Murder Everything That Has Been So Wonderfully Revolutionary - and Evolutionary Regarding Previous CryTek Titles. Primarily The Downgrade of Graphics, Lack of Open-World Environments and Reduction in Precision-Controls.


*Not that I would know.

Biologist, keyword for broke, thus one gets antsy when his virtual world doesn't meet his $50 standard. I died a little.

You Sir, are my hero. If only Crytek had the level of comprehension of biology that you have on PC gaming...perhaps they would have discovered the cure for AIDS or something.

For those not too keen on riddles or mathematics:
Skythan's knowledge of PC gaming = 10 times that of Crytek's knowledge of PC gaming
Skythan's knowledge of Biology = "Pretty Darn Good I Bet"
Therefore, if Crytek's knowledge of Biology were 10 times that of Skythan's knowledge of Biology,
Then Crytek's knowledge of Biology = about 10 times that of "Pretty Darn Good I Bet"
And of course, 10 times that of "Pretty Darn Good I Bet" is roughly the cure for a Major Disease like AIDS.

Seriously though, I thoroughly enjoyed that well versed description of your disappointment in C2, and I share most of your sentiments wholeheartedly.

Ah, see! This is how to complain!

Now we only need to educate all the other forum members on how to do that...

At any rate, you make some very good points. I do enjoy the game, but unfortunately I don't enjoy it enough to not regret paying $60.

Good show Sir!

Yeah...What he said! lol Seriously you put it right out there for everyone to see. Now lets hope they have their eyes open.

I agree 1000% I think our disappointment will be reflected in the lack of sales. God damn I am so disappointed, to the level of pissed...

Sadly, Crytek doesn't want Crysis 2 to be a classic.
Instead, they just want to make a game like those generic action films that can gross a lot, but forgotten by people 3 months later.
I am still thinking whether to buy Crysis 2 or not. Though it costs less than $35 here in hong kong, I don't want to support a developer that treats pc gamers as second class citizens.

Amen, brother. The game is poop, they removed everything that made Crysis special.

God damn it. I read that entire post. And I loved it.


;_;

I have a new found respect for Biologists.

Probably one of the best 'letters of complaint' I've ever read in a PC game forum.

hats off to you good sir.

Sadly, I must agree with you. I had high hopes for this sequel ("trust them, guys, they know how to make a good PC game") and while the gameplay was enjoyable enough, the number of corners cut on PC for the console market really disappointed me. No saving or loading? That's just...wrong. I too was reaching for F5 and Z on a regular basis.

Let's hope they patch the HELL out of this.

Edit: I forgot to mention how badly I missed Crysis 1's physics during my playthrough. We're back to the realm of invulnerable trees for Crysis 2, and I don't like that at all.

I'm not going to comment on the content of the post per se, but as a law student I can tell good writing when I see it. I commend your well organised and well written post.

God damn it. I read that entire post. And I loved it.


;_;
^what he said.

I honestly didn't care about the content but I enjoyed reading such a well-written post, lol. It was a refreshing change from the usual "This gaym SUX!!!!" drivel we usually see.

I agree with the OP, well written and spot on. Very disappointed with Crysis 2 for the PC.

Agreed, signed,
Breathless

PS: ...and let's not forget about the different release dates across the globe, that favors North America the most - from a game dev studio that's based in effin' GERMANY, Europe.

Well I appreciate all the kind words, I truly do.

I wrote this for several reasons; but mostly for myself. I felt this was the path of least resistance to vent my frustrations and disappointment of what should have been the next generation of First Person Shooters. I hope, in some strange backwater spot in my brain, that someone in CryTek, GmbH will read this and lament at that which they have lost and endeavor in the future not to design quick-to-market "sudden impact" games and instead return to a business philosophy of enduring works of art that spawn modding communities and great press for years to come - which is a realm I feel PC dominates more than any other platform could dream. Also, in part this was for the community, to line up in some organized fashion all that we, collectively, loved about Crysis and pine to have again but had stolen from us.

I suppose this works as a record of my own personal contentions with this game and a way to formalize these in ways that others may get behind and say, "Yes, that's my issue too".

PC Gamers are like cult-film followers, evoking images of A Fish Called Wanda - and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. We're quirky. We're Technical. We Appreciate Effort, Concept and Strive for Progression - Just Look at All The Mods Out There! Just to make our games a little bit better. A world to escape to after a long day, say, curing AIDS or writing a Law Paper... A whole open world where trees can be flattened, powers can be obtained and by the end of the day we feel just that much better about ourselves and the world.

Idealistic, Sure. But Wouldn't it Be Great - If There Were Some Media Out There Where Technology Could Give Us Dreams. With Rocket Launchers.

Here's To Hope - And a Good Community.

Also,
Bio's a good gig. Pfizer does alright, last I checked.